Not only did Confucius make relevant Confucian classics on filial piety, but later Mencius also made some discussions on filial piety. For example, it is well known that "there are three unfilial sons and no great future" is what Mencius said. However, I often hear this sentence, so do you know what the three "unfilial" are? Shishun didn't tell her parents when she got married, and she didn't fulfill her responsibility as a junior. As can be seen from Mencius' original words, the so-called "unfilial has three", in which "three" is only an imaginary number, not an exact number "three". In other words, Mencius did not discuss which three situations were "three unfilial".
In addition, future generations will understand that "no offspring is the greatest", just as no offspring can inherit, which is the greatest unfilial. However, Mencius' original words did not mean this either. The meaning of Mencius' original words is very clear. The biggest unfilial thing is that you have not fulfilled your responsibility as a younger generation. Mencius' statement seems to have changed in the process of later generations' inheritance. Whether in some literary works or film and television works. The sage said that "there are three unfilial sons, and no heirs are the greatest", which has almost become synonymous with unfilial sons.
Zhao Qi was a Confucian scholar in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The main achievement of his life is the annotation of Mencius, and the wrong meaning of "there are three unfilial things, and no posterity is great" was handed down by Zhao Qi. After Zhao Qi's annotation misinterpreted Mencius' meaning, later generations gradually changed Mencius' meaning completely along Zhao Qi's annotation.
When Zhao Qi annotated Mencius in the Eastern Han Dynasty, he did not explain what Mencius said. Instead, I used my own language to directly understand my views on filial piety and unfilial. From the original text of Zhao Qi's annotation, we can see that the meaning of "nothing is great in the future" has completely changed. This is not Mencius' words, but Zhao Qi's.
Parents are old and poor, and it is the second kind of unfilial for children to worship their parents without seeking a career path. Not getting married, not having children, not carrying on the family line, or even breaking the family line, is the third kind of unfilial. Judging from Zhao Qi's comments, the meaning is in line with the mainstream values of the society at that time and the cultural thought of filial piety, so there is nothing wrong with it. However, infallibility is one thing, and misinterpreting Mencius' original intention is another.